“We run fast, we shoot fast and we don’t ever stop,” Heather (Jessica Matten) tells her players on the Chuska Warriors about the style of basketball she’d like to see them play in “Rez Ball.” That directive may take a while to set in with her high school squad, but is director Sydney Freeland’s modus operandi from the jump of her third feature, an almost comically brisk but genuinely rousing telling of a true underdog story.
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The national anthem hasn’t stopped playing over the first game you see the Warriors in before both teams on the floor have reached 40 points. While mirroring the energy on the court, the sense of urgency would seem to come from the opportunity to reenvision the sports drama from the Indigenous perspective. Details such as having “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung in Navajo elevate a serviceable standard of the genre, while streaming on Netflix should actually help it reach a wider audience than a theatrical release might.
Older audiences will recognize the playbook Freeland and co-writer Sterlin Harjo are working from as the Chuska Huskies become a sum greater than their individual parts. But it is genuinely jarring when the obligatory talk early on about the future between star players Jimmy (Kauchani Bratt) and Nataanii (Kusem Goodwind) looking out into the distance of their home in New Mexico starts with the latter asking the former, “Do you ever think about getting out?” and it’s clear he’s referring to life itself rather than going off to college elsewhere.
Despite a height that has him ranked as one of the state’s brightest prep stars, Nataanii is laid low by the death of his mother and sister in a drunk driving accident. After taking his junior year off to grieve, he ends up not suiting up for his senior year either when he follows through on his suicidal thoughts. A team that was thought to contend for a championship is left in disarray with a coach who already wanted to be anywhere else, despite being considered a hometown hero after playing for the WNBA.
Speed doesn’t necessarily serve “Rez Ball” well all the time when it could seem a bit blasé or insensitive that grief over Nataanii doesn’t appear to last long and serious issues in the Native community, such as alcoholism, are raised without much introspection. Jimmy’s mother Gloria (Julia Jones), who’s in recovery, won’t come to his games yet appears well-spoken and reasonably well put-together at all times to serve the plot without weighing things down. Then again, this could also be seen as a repudiation of trauma-filled films that generally emerge from the reservation. In a sports story where there’s a certain formula that audiences know already, these narrative shortcuts feel like a blessing as far as pace is concerned. Considering all you really need to know is that there’s adversity to overcome, it becomes a joy to watch the Huskies when these challenges are a bit different.
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Before the announcers can talk about players that go together like frybread and powdered sugar, Jimmy and Heather must become leaders in spite of a history where they’ve always felt second class. Soon the team is practicing by herding sheep on her grandmother’s land and cleansing their spirits with traditional ceremonies before shooting hoops. With the film’s narrative efficiency active at all times, Jimmy’s inspired idea to call plays in Navajo to prevent other teams from knowing what the team will do leads him to finally start talking to his attractive co-worker (Zoey Reyes) at the burger stand when she could help teach him the language.
Although “Rez Ball” plays a bit differently from other basketball stories, it takes great pains to look like every contemporary one that was made at a studio level, a mildly transgressive act when life on the reservation is typically filtered through a grittier lens. Cinematographer Kira Kelly is working with a sleek Alexa 35 and clearly has the equipment — and the eye — to keep up with the action. Even when the film inevitably arrives at the big game at the end, it never feels like it broke a sweat to get there.
Freeland and Harjo inject enough humor and heart to pierce through the gloss. When the finale revolves around a second matchup with Santa Fe Catholic, a team that blew out the Huskies earlier in the season, it can be amusing to think that cultural appropriation is actually working for the Indigenous community in this case — a spin on how that trope is typically handled in sports movies. While those films are meant to entertain all audiences, “Rez Ball” actually succeeds in making the enjoyment even broader.
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